Doctors's strike may be prolonged

While individual clinics offered medical services as usual, the confrontation between doctors and the government took a turn for the worse Monday as medical students vowed to leave school and professors issued statements supporting the doctors` strike. As a result, the walkout is likely to be prolonged.

Some 10,000 medical students held a rally to declare their withdrawal from school and launch a struggle against the government at the Hanyang University outdoor theater Monday. The rally was organized by the ¡°emergency countermeasure committee`` of medical students nationwide.

They resolved to tender a letter of withdrawal to school authorities shortly. Kim Kwang-Jun, spokesman for the committee, said that the government is condemning as collective egoism its demands for the correction of wrong medical circumstances under which doctors cannot treat patients as they learned in their textbooks. He said that the committee is now receiving letters of withdrawal from the students of 41 medical universities and would submit them to school authorities at an appropriate time. He said the students were considering not only boycotting classes, but also refusing to pay tuition fees.

The national association of medical university professors also issued a statement that it would take any action deemed necessary if striking interns and residents are enlisted into the army or dismissed.

Following a government instruction, 14 hospitals, including Seoul National University Hospital and Kyunghee University Hospital, sent letters to their interns and residents, asking them to return to work. Seven other hospitals, including Kangbuk Samsung Medical Center, orally asked trainee doctors to return to their jobs.

However, about 81 percent of interns and residents are now participating in the strike, calling for the release of the doctors arrested for organizing the walkout. This has continuously crippled operations at hospitals and caused great inconvenience to patients.

Song Sang-Keun songmoon@donga.com